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U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card: Freedom and Flexibility

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If you love living life on your own terms, the U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card may be the card for you. Instead of choosing bonus categories for you, this card lets you pick your own. To boot, it offers a high ongoing rewards rate and considerable long-term value.

U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card

Pros

Cons

Sign-up Bonus

Earn a new cardmember bonus of $100 after you spend $500 in net purchases on your card within the first 90 days of account opening*.

Annual Fee

$0

Intro APR Promotions

Purchase: None

Transfer: 0% for 9 mos

APR

Min APR: 12.99%, Variable

Max APR: 23.99%, Variable

Cash Advance APR: 23.99%, Variable

Card Details

5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined net purchases² each quarter on two categories you choose*.

2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category (like gas or groceries)*.

1% cash back on everything else*.

No limit on total cash back.

Subject to credit approval.

5% as a starting point

The U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card offers 5% cash back on bonus categories that change every quarter up to $2,000 in net purchases spent per quarter, or $8,000 a year. You can choose two 5% categories from a list that may include gym costs, cell phone bills, movie theaters, fast food and car rentals. On top of that, you’ll also get an unlimited 2% rewards on one everyday purchase category, where you may be able to choose from categories such as gas, groceries or restaurants.

And it gets better. The first time you redeem more than $100 worth of rewards at once, U.S. Bank will throw in an extra $25. This means that if you’ve saved up 10,000 bonus points (normally worth $100 cash back) you can redeem it for $125.

Best of all, the rewards are unlimited, and the annual fee is $0, which gives this card an even better long-term value.

U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card vs. Chase Freedom®: 5 on 5

If you’re thinking about getting the U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card, you’ve probably also considered another reigning 5% champion, the Chase Freedom®. The Chase Freedom® gives 5% back on bonus categories, but those categories are preset by Chase, and capped at $1,500 in purchases a quarter, or $6,000 a year.

The U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card has higher ongoing rewards than the Chase Freedom®, but lacks the head start of a bonus. The Chase Freedom®, meanwhile, comes with an easy-to-get offer: Earn a $100 Bonus after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months from account opening.

Moral of the story? Get the U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card if:

You want to choose your own rewards categories

You plan to hold the card for more than 2 years

Get the Chase Freedom® if:

The bonus categories dovetail with your spending

You plan to hold the card for 2 years or fewer

It comes down to sign-up bonus versus ongoing rewards, here’s something to keep in mind: The Chase Freedom® delivers a lot of value quickly, while the U.S. Bank Cash+™ Visa Signature® Card has less short-term value but more staying power.

No annual fee and rewards never expire as long as your account is open

5% cash back on your first $2,000 in combined net purchases² each quarter on two categories you choose*.

2% cash back on your choice of one everyday category (like gas or groceries)*.

1% cash back on everything else*.

No limit on total cash back.

Subject to credit approval.

Image via iStock.

disqus_DsgjD5eIlg

Great article, I wanted to make note that if you have a US Bank gold checking then you get an extra .25% back on all cash rewards programs. That beats out Chase’s .1% + .10$ in my opinion. I just got the Cash + and am very satisfied with it.

http://profiles.google.com/thomas.nichols89 Thomas Nichols

Get Both! Then you have many 5% categories! I use the Chase card for everyday smal purchases, and get that extra $0.10 on every purchase, so every day coffies, lunch, and so on. Then get use 5% on the chase categories, and on the Cash+ categories. So the Cash+ becomes your “bigger purchase” card, and the Chase Freedom the “Every Day Card”

http://profiles.google.com/thomas.nichols89 Thomas Nichols

And regarding Chase’s .1% and $.10, I regularly buy an $0.80 Burger from arctic circle, and I get 1.1% back, and $0.10 Back. Thats $0.11 Back on an $0.80 Purchase (Rounded up.) That’s 12.5% cash back. On small everyday purchase, that $0.10 really does make a difference.

Guest

You mean $0.011

http://twitter.com/pfdeals pfdeals

I like Cash+, partly because I already have a USBank checking account, but both are great cards and much better than Amex’s membership rewards programs.

http://www.facebook.com/jonathanb Jonathan L. Bowen

I honestly don’t see the comparison here for people like me who don’t care about carrying a balance or any of that nonsense. The US Bank Cash+ card is FAR superior. When we were given Bill Pay as an option (that has since been removed for next quarter), it wasn’t even close. I was getting 5% back on a huge chunk of my credit card bill. But even without that, I’d rather have two 5% categories I can choose that are relevant to my life than something as stupid as “gas, drugstores, and Starbucks.” I don’t go to Starbucks and I don’t spend enough on gas to care about their 5%, because I already have a Bank of a American card giving me a permanent 3% on gas (up to $1,500 spending limit per Q). I’d rather get my 2% groceries always, then have my two 5% categories, and then on top of that get $25 just for redeeming $100, which is nothing. I reach that easily every other month just with normal spending.

Bob Doe

Cash+ also gives a 25% bonus on every purchase if you have U.S. Bank a gold checking package and a 50% bonus if u have the platinum checking package! So if you have gold your getting 6.25% cash back or platinum 7.5% back with the 5% categories plus the bonus.

Meng Li

Why my Chase freedom card doesn’t give a 0.1% +$0.10 back on every purchase? Instead, I get a 10% bonus based on obtained points if I have a checking account with Chase.

Joshua Havelka

Chase got rid of the $.10 per purchase. That was one of the best things about the card. I loved making small purchase to rack up the $.10. There was even a time when I put $10 into my diablo account, and did 10 $1 transactions. I guess it was people like me who ruined it.

Adseka

This card just got moved to the back of my wallet. It was a great cash back card until they moved restaurants to the 2% category. I, too, will hang on to it in the hopes they bring restaurants back, but I definitely won’t use it as much.

Brian S

US Bank Cash plus is offering 5% cash back from purchases
from “electronic stores” and state: “Make even smarter buys when you earn cash
back on the latest tech products, including televisions, computers and phones.” They also state in the fine print “Purchases
which fall into the eligible Purchase Category will receive the stated Rebate.
U.S. Bank makes every effort to include all relevant merchant category codes in
its listed Purchase Categories.”
However, this last statement is false.
The only merchant code that qualifies 5732 for “electronic sales/repair”. This is a very narrow definition and does not
meet their claim that they “make every effort to include all relevant merchant
category codes”. For example, they do
not include 5045 for “computer stores/services” when clearly they lead
customers to believe that computers should qualify as electronics. Stay away from this credit card. The categories are narrowly defined and not
user friendly.

Abdul G Habibuzaman

Does the US Bank Cash+ card work at local grocery stores (not the big chains) for the 5% cash back OR is it only for the big chain grocery stores ?

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